All companies operating within the food and beverage industry, whether multinational in scale or independent local growers or food and beverage processors, are under constant risk of severe financial loss due to product contamination. This article provides some practical information about the risks, the heightened regulatory involvement, how traditional insurance may apply, a brief peek on what to expect in the event of a recall and options for effective protection through the utilization of Product Contamination & Recall insurance.

Two Key Areas of Focus

· How to transfer the financial risk of product contamination and product recall, and

· The critical necessity of integrating the insurance claim process within the recall event.

A One-Week Food Recall Snapshot

A snapshot of the U.S. Federal Food Safety website over a recent seven day span reveals food product recalls involving: Salmonella contaminated raw frozen fish, undeclared milk allergens in a Taco dinner product, Listeria contamination of pizza products, undeclared egg allergens in a sausage product, Listeria contamination of deli-sandwiches, mislabeling of a frozen pasta product, undeclared Sulfite allergens contained in a fruit preserve, undeclared peanut allergens in an almond snack, and of course, potential Salmonella contamination of fresh vegetable packaged salads. Most of these recalls affected independent private businesses and illustrate the vulnerability of all food and beverage businesses.

The Implications of the Food Safety Modernization Act (“FSMA”)

The potential effects of the FSMA with its passage into law on January 4, 2011, suggest that we can expect to realize more product recalls. Here are some key points to consider:

Enhanced Record Keeping & Full Access by FDA

Food producers are required to maintain detailed records of food safety and security protocols, including manufacturing, packaging, and distribution process of every food product for a minimum period of two years.

Registration, Inspection & Rejection of Imports

Food facilities must be registered,

Imports will be rejected when a foreign facility refuses inspection,

Increased inspections of U.S. and foreign food facilities

FDA Authorized to Mandate a Product Recall

The FDA’s authority to effectuate a unilateral product recall product was previously limited to baby formula and could only previously recommend a product recall. Under the FSMA the FDA can unilaterally order a product recall.

The fact that the FDA can now unilaterally order product recalls and the codification of the protection afforded to employees reporting violations signals the need for heightened urgency on the part of the food and beverage industry enterprises to ensure that they are adequately protected against the devastating financial and reputational consequences caused by a product recall event.

How Can a Food or Beverage Enterprise Protect Itself?

Business Insurance 101

Every business owner has a varying degree of familiarity with a Business Owner’s Insurance Policy (“BOP”) which provides most smaller enterprises with two main forms of coverage: Commercial General Liability, Business Property, as well as a host of other ancillary coverage ranging from Business Automobile to Data Privacy Breach coverage. Some BOP policies also contain limited Employment Practices Liability and limited Employee Dishonesty coverage.

Unfortunately, many independent companies operating in this industry are operating under the misconception that their basic commercial insurance coverage will provide protection in the event of a product recall. Nothing could be further from the truth.

How Would a Commercial General Liability (CGL) Policy Respond?

For the limited purposes of this discussion, a CGL policy will provide defense and indemnification for claims of policy-defined “Bodily Injury or “Property Damage” brought by third-parties against the policyholder. Coverage under these policies is typically triggered by an “Occurrence” which is further defined as an “Accident.” CGL policies generally require that the “Bodily Injury” must have a physical manifestation to trigger coverage, rather than simply a claim of emotional distress. While specific policy language is always subject to the interpretation of a court, it is generally held that a physical bodily injury caused to a consumer arising from a contaminated product would be covered as a product liability claim under a CGL insurance policy.

While the associated bodily injury claims may be covered under a standard ISO CGL policy, those same policies also contain an exclusion typically entitled Recall of Products, Work or Impaired Property. That provision precludes coverage for any claims of damages associated with any loss, costs or expenses involving the policyholder’s product, work or impaired property if it involves a product recall or withdrawal because of a known or suspected defect.

The CGL – Product Recall Hybrid Policy

A recent entrant into the commercial insurance products arena provides limited coverage for some of the product recall expenses that would be otherwise uninsured under a standard CGL insurance policy. This type of combination policy provides coverage only for:

Customer notification costs of recalled product,

Recalled product shipping and disposal costs,

Refund, repair or replacement product costs

Reimbursement for third-party expenses including defense costs

It should be noted that the above expenses represent only a portion of the overall expenses that a company would incur in the event of a product recall.

The Commercial Property Policy

Commercial Property policies are available either with a more restrictive policy form only covering loss caused by policy-specified Perils (causes) or on an “All Risks” basis under which coverage is triggered from any cause or peril unless it is specifically excluded by the policy. Commercial Property policies provide coverage for, among other things, physical loss or damage to inventory and stock, which is pertinent to a discussion about product recall. Whether an affected product or stock has been actually physically injured by a covered peril is the initial determination that must be made in order to determine if the Commercial Property coverage will apply.

Additionally, Property policies contain a number of other provisions that may come into play to limit or exclude coverage in connection with a product recall event. One provision found in all Commercial Property policies is the Pollution Exclusion. This type of exclusion invariably contains the term “contaminant” which depending upon the particular Property policy and the legal jurisdiction that would interpret the Property policy’s coverage, may be held to apply to a contaminated product inventory or stock.

Product Contamination and Product Recall Insurance

The optimal way a food or beverage company can protect itself from the economic and reputational damages caused by a product recall is to transfer that risk through an insurance mechanism that is designed to specifically respond to a recall event.

Coverage under these policies are typically triggered by one or more of the following policy-defined events: Accidental Contamination, Malicious Contamination or Product Extortion.

First-Party Coverage responds to the policyholder’s:

• Business Income Loss,

• Recall Expenses,

• Product Rehabilitation expenses,

• Consultant and Advisor costs

• Extortion costs

Third-Party Coverage responds to the policyholder’s:

• Liability for claims brought by third-parties such as distributors, wholesalers, or supermarkets or other customers, for their economic loss and reputational damage in connection with a policyholder’s product recall.

This coverage is typically triggered when it is determined that consumption or use of the suspect product either has resulted in bodily injury or property damage or will result in bodily injury or property damage within 365 days of the product’s withdrawal.

Optional Coverage offered by at least one major Product Recall insurer includes:

• Product Refusal Coverage protects against economic loss caused by the refusal of an insured product during a scheduled delivery. The refusal must be caused due to a publication that the insured product will cause bodily injury and because bodily injury has been caused by a similar product.

• Intentionally Impaired Ingredients Coverage provides protection in the event of contamination or impairment of an insured product that results from an ingredient supplied to the policyholder and when the contamination or impairment was intentional and wrongful but not malicious.

Pre-Recall Consultative Services

Sophisticated Product Recall insurers will provide the policyholder with some limited of Pre-Recall Risk Management services as part of the protection afforded under the insurance policy.

These consultative services provided by external experts may include the analysis of one or more of a policyholder’s Crisis Management plan, its training & development processes, reviews of manufacturing and corporate systems and processes. There is little doubt that small to mid-sized companies without the benefit of dedicated risk management professionals can benefit from such analyses and advice. This process, which is voluntary, also benefits the insurance underwriters as it provides a deep view into the potential vulnerabilities of a policyholder to product contamination and recall, which if uncorrected to the satisfaction of the insurer, may result in less favorable terms and/or higher policy premium.

Complete Access & Cooperation

Unless a company has gone through the process of a product recall claim, most companies don’t realize their contractual obligations to fully cooperate with their Product Recall insurer. This means to immediately notify the insurer of a suspected event and to allow the insurer and their experts full access to records, product, company personnel and facilities. The insurer has the contractual right to complete access to the policyholder’s books and records and to inspect the policyholder’s property and operations at any time in relation to the subject matter of the Product Recall policy.

Coverage Determination- The Scientific Analyses Process

Upon notifying the insurer of a suspected or actual product contamination, in almost every instance the insurer will exercise its contractual right to perform a scientific analysis of the product to determine whether it has in fact been contaminated, and whether the contamination rises to the level that it will reasonably cause bodily harm to consumers.

Policyholders must be prepared to share their scientific analyses data with the product recall insurer to support their claim for coverage. Depending upon the nature of the contamination, triggering coverage for voluntary recalls can be contentious if the respective experts’ conclusions do not align. Therefore, identifying highly qualified external experts in advance of a product recall will afford the policyholder the ability to react quickly to obtain the required analyses in the event of a recall. Advance consultation with legal counsel experienced with food and beverage product recalls can be a useful process for identifying scientific experts that are qualified to serve as effective litigation experts.

Crisis Management Coverage

Product Recall policies almost universally provide either a specified sub-limit as part of the policy’s aggregate limit or an additional separate limit to pay for the policyholder’s cost to retain a Crisis Management firm to handle public relations in connection with a product recall. This is an important aspect of coverage as it affords immediate access to expert assistance to restore a company’s reputation in the event of such a crisis. Most policies will require the policyholder to select from the insurer’s pre-approved list of qualified crisis management firms.

Insurer’s Right of Subrogation

As is the case with most insurance policies, upon payment of a covered Loss under a Product Recall policy, the insurer has the contractual right to seek recovery from a third-party that may have caused the loss, which includes bringing litigation in the name of the policyholder. This can become a delicate business issue when a policyholder’s key supplier would appear to be the source of the problem. While most insurers will not waive their right to subrogation (unless there is a corresponding higher premium paid at policy inception) it is a point that policyholders must keep in mind and may become a relevant aspect of the negotiation of the claim.

Commercial insurance policies of every variety contain a standard exclusion to coverage that essentially states the policy will not apply if there is a claim alleging the failure to purchase insurance or adequate insurance that would have covered the loss against the company.

Food and beverage companies that have investors who may bring litigation against a company for financial damage caused to a company that was involved in an uninsured product recall may understandably think the purchase of a D&O or Management Liability policy would protect them from most investor claims alleging corporate mismanagement. However, in the event of an uninsured product recall event, the D&O policyholder may find they are without the protection from investor lawsuits they thought they had purchased under their Directors’ & Officers’ Liability policy because they chose to not purchase Product Recall insurance.

Some Practical Steps To Take

Every food and beverage company, large or small, must have a product recall crisis plan in place which identifies both internal and external management personnel and a process for managing the crisis event. The plan should be reviewed periodically and mock-tested with distribution chain partners to identify areas for improvement. This pro-active approach will favorably distinguish a potential Product Recall insurance applicant to insurers and result in more favorable premiums.

Immediately isolate and preserve all suspected contaminated product wherever located and do not destroy any contaminated product.

Maintain accurate financial records of all costs associated with the product recall.

With advice from legal counsel, retain qualified external experts to perform a scientific analysis of the suspected product and to determine causation of the contamination.

Coordinate access to the suspected product, facilities, and records with the insurers’ claims representatives and experts through legal counsel and your insurance broker.

Manage all external communications through a central point of contact.

Final Thoughts

The increased authority of the FDA to unilaterally order product recall under the Food Safety Modernization Act will likely increase the incidents of involuntary product recalls. FDA ordered recalls should lessen the potential contention between policyholders and Product Recall insurers with regard to the necessity of the product recall.

The extremely significant financial benefits of the coverage afforded by this catastrophic insurance product both in terms of first-party coverage for the policyholder as well as third-party liability coverage for loss to the policyholder’s distribution chain partners cannot be overstated.

Managing a product recall claim is a complex process requiring coordination between the policyholder’s senior financial and operations management, internal and external experts, legal counsel, insurers and their cadre of corresponding experts.

When selecting an insurance representative for this highly specialized insurance product, food and beverage companies should carefully consider the insurance professional’s demonstrated claims experience, their ability to work effectively with internal and external resources and with insurers to achieve a fair and equitable resolution of the associated claims. Careful selection is particularly vital for small to mid-sized companies without the dedicated internal risk management resources for coordinating the various aspects of the claim process.

If you are not fully conversant about all the details regarding new food product development, then you are probably wondering what it actually is? Why is it necessary to create new products, as well as why companies feel the need to improve on a product once it has been released to the general public.

So what is product development?

The answer to these questions are actually quite simple, and they relate to the fact that humans need change, and what is good now is not always going to be good in the near future. Basically, every product, be it food related or leisure and clothing related fails to impress the general public after a certain amount of time, and for that reason, a product will need to be either replaced, or spruced up a little.

Market research is crucial

Good companies with years of experience in marketing products to the general public will be fully aware that they will need to develop new products, and they will know exactly what the consumer wants because they would have spent time and money on market research. Food companies in particular are constantly changing or developing new products in line with the forever changing tastes of the consumer. This is for the reason that the tastes of the general public is always changing and food companies always have to develop new products. So new product development has to be completed with due care and with an eye for detail because the continued success of a company largely depends on the company’s ability to produce new, interesting and varied products to the market place.

Difficulties with new product development

The problem with new product development is that it is not always straight forward, and in fact if it is done badly, then it can actually harm the profits and profile of the company, and some of the biggest global companies have got things spectacularly wrong in the past. All this is because they have got the market research wrong or have decided to not actually do any market research and have got complacent with thinking that the general public will but any product that they bring out.

Advertising the new product is crucial for the success of any new product and without a decent advertising campaign no new product is going to be a success and this has the potential to harm the profits of a company in the long term.

A general purpose blade is a saw blade that is designed to effectively rip and crosscut such that the user is able to continue working without having to change saw blades. Such blades feature a combination of a lower tooth count and larger gullets than crosscut blades, which enables them to rip effectively. In addition, the alternate top bevel (ATB) tooth configuration similarly makes them effective for clean crosscutting. Blades for general uses are great in that they enable you to save a lot of time as you don’t have to switch continually back and forth between rip and crosscut blades. If you are searching for a saw blade that does it all, your search is over.

Types of General Purpose Blades

Cut-off & Crosscut

Features an Alternate Top Bevel Grind or ATB which makes it a great choice for heavy production in cabinetmaking shops. This blade may also feature Triple Chip Grind or TC and take the form of a heavy duty production saw blade that is ideal for general trim and crosscutting.

Combination Ripping & Crosscut

Features an 4-ATB and 1 Raker and is ideal for tasks where one blade must do almost everything i.e. rip and crosscut.

General Purpose Cut-Off

This blade features Alternate Top Bevel Grind or ATB and is similar to other blades, only that it has a slightly lower hook angle which improves surface quality. This blade may also feature a Triple Chip Grind or TC and is excellent for cutting single or double sided plastic laminated material. This blade leaves smooth chip-free cuts on the top and bottom.

Multi-Use Ripping

Features an Alternate Top Bevel Grind and is a great choice for all around use.

Prestige

Features an ATB and is a saw blade that is truly designed to do it all. The blade provides crisp, clean cuts both with and across the grain.

Thin Kerf General Purpose

Features Alternate Top Bevel Grind and is designed to reduce stress on the saw, as well as reduce stock loss.

Portable General Purpose

Features ATB and makes for the perfect upgrade or replacement saw blade for portable saws. This blade is also available in a variation that offers clean, fast, burn-free in framing and pressure treated stock, as well as in plywood and other construction-grade sheet goods.

The majority of saw blades are designed to perform their best work in a specific type of cutting operation. There are blades which have been designed to rip lumber, crosscut lumber, cut veneered plywood and panels, cut plastics and laminates, cut melamine and non-ferrous metals. General purpose blades are designed to work well in two or more cut types. When selecting the right type of blade for your needs, be sure to take into account the right number of teeth, gullet type, tooth configuration and hook angle.

The idea of the specialist is bandied about a lot in the business world a lot these days but make no mistake, a tree is judged by its fruit. To explain this age old proverb, let’s talk about plumbing because plumbing happens to be one of those areas in which the term ‘specialist’ is misused. Of course, all plumbing services are going to claim to be ‘specialist’ because all plumbing services want to identify themselves with a certain quality of service.

But judge them by their fruits. Do they have a detailed knowledge about the latest product lines? Do they offer the required maintenance to keep those product lines performing at optimum efficiency? Probably more pertinently than anything else, how do those product lines perform on a day to day basis? How often does a ‘specialist’ have to come out to service these products?

You see it’s not just a matter of having a few people on board your staff who know more than the average guy about plumbing. At Smart State Plumbing Supplies, we have a highly qualified staff to deal with maintenance needs, but more importantly we have a highly qualified staff who knows the value of reliable, state of the art products. We believe in the products we service and maintain, and we know you want the service and maintenance of those products to be a seldom exercise. We do everything in power to ensure that our commitment to maintenance intrudes as seldom as possible with day to day lifestyle. This starts with a high quality product line of which we have a specialist knowledge.

Then there is what we call General Plumbing Maintenance. This is not to be confused with fixing mistakes that could have been avoided through the sale of reliable, state of the art products. Maintenance at Smart State Plumbing Supplies means fine tuning and maintaining products that are supposed to make your life maintain an easy flow. In the area of plumbing, maintenance will always be a requirement. This is the nature of such finely balanced systems. But we make it a much easier pill to swallow by offering not just maintenance but information and choice.

Just take a peek at the Smart State Plumbing Supplies website sometime. Then you will see our dedication to keeping you informed about what we do and the products you may or may not choose to use. This is a breath of fresh air to many people who know little or nothing about how their taps run. Of course, another breath fresh air is knowing that our maintenance and service is guaranteed. We can offer that guarantee because we’re a genuine specialist team.